The North Eastern Garment Traders Association (NEGTA) was formed in 1999 with a view to benefitting the manufacturer/Distributors and retailers by organising Garment Fairs in Guwahati twice a year. Earlier, retailers of the area had to travel all the way either to Mumbai or Kolkata for ordering garment products twice a year for their respective requirements. In this manner the NEGTA facilitated the manufacturers to display their merchandise at Guwahati, showcasing their products regionally in the tune of Garment Fairs which are organised nationally. Now, the retailer of North East completes almost their 80% order work at the fair.

It was the initiative of then founder members Late Manohar Kataria of Vishwa Trading Co., Sri Vinod Gurdasani of Men’s Clothing Co., Sri Sagar Jain of Arihant Marketing, Sri Subhash Sethi of Soham Readymades Pvt. Ltd , Sri Raj Kumar Choudhary of Leisure Garments, Sri Anil Jain of Vishal Garments and Sri Shekhar Agarwal of New Age Marketing, all branded garment distributors. Sri Vijay Jain of Crown Agency was the founder President.

The NEGTA now is headed by Sri Shekhar Agarwal of New Age Marketing as President and Sri Varoon Rungta of M/s Orbit as Secretary.

Clothing Manufacturer Association of India, Mumbai also held a joint meeting in Guwahati in July 2015 and discussed the matters of mutual interests and concern. The CMAI conveyed us how Union Textile Ministry is keen in promotion of Garment Industry in the North East. The CMAI further informed that it had long back implemented action against Garment Industry payment defaulter nationally and as a result many default payment victim distributors have recovered an odd amount in the tune of Rupees 600 crore in total from various defaulters pan India. In the same tune the NEGTA also nominated a payment default committee and started a ‘CO-ORDINATION (NEGTA)’ whatsapp group, to co-ordinate the payment default of retailers of North East India.

The NEGTA succeeded in bringing almost all different fair organisers under one umbrella of NEGTA during 29th Garment Fair held on 9th to 11th January 2016.

Today NEGTA is not just a Fair Organising Committee, but have emerged as a great force of Garment Traders of North East India. The NEGTA has emerged as a very strong platform in the sphere of Garment Trade of North Eastern region. We started our job and have achieved success in providing solutions to our members.

It is the endeavour of this organisation to give to all its members a feeling of togetherness and protection. Just like many beads woven in a string make a necklace, we in the NEGTA have tied ourselves in one thread for a common cause of all of us. The credit of such accomplishment lies not in any individual but the team of NEGTA of which each member of the organisation who is an indispensable part and it has further revealed how unity and being in group have got great power. The onus of being successful lies on each of us and we need to work as a group. Groups are a part of every person's life, we are born into groups, learn to play in groups, go to school in groups, worship in groups, and live in groups.

The garment market of the North East has always been most challenging so far as fashion industry is concerned. The fashion trends in the North East has been as far as compared to the rest of India is very advanced. So far as the marketing is concern, we the marketers of North East go through tough times in servicing the retailers, the obvious reason being a large geographical area, transportation hurdles and insurgencies issues in some areas as well. Retailers also suffer tough times to sustain in some areas.

In the times to come, we plan to give more strength to the organisation NEGTA and this would not be possible without active support of the members and retailers as well. I convey my best regards to all concerned and do hope that we get a sizeable growth in our businesses.